Castles and Cathedrals

Since coming to Dublin, I've been so anxious to go sightseeing in the city, but my friends and I kept telling ourselves that we wanted to wait until the weather got nicer before we did this. But after 12 consecutive days of rain, we decided that at this rate we would never get the chance to see all of the great things Dublin has to offer. So, in typical American fashion, we donned our Sperrys and North Face rain jackets and went exploring! 

Yesterday we went to Dublin Castle, which is where the State Apartment, Chapel Royal, The Garda (Police) Museum, The Chester Beatty Library, and the Revenue Museum are located. According to the Dublin Castle's website, the castle is open seven days a week for guided tours. We were all ready to get a tour of a castle, but when we arrived, we were informed that the castle is currently closed. It was disappointing to not be able to go inside, but the outside of the castle is absolutely beautiful, and it was only slightly drizzling, which was a plus!  

The Chester Beatty Library (this was open, so we got to go inside and see  books, book bindings, manuscripts, and paintings from Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East).

This statue was put in Dublin Castle's courtyard in 2003 when Dublin hosted the World Games for the Special Olympics.

This morning, one of the other girls from BC and I decided to go to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We were in for a surprise when we arrived and found out that St. Patrick's is actually an Anglican church... why one of the most famous cathedrals in a country where 94% of the population identifies itself as Catholic is actually Protestant I will never know. It was still incredible to go to mass there, and St. Patrick's is probably one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The floors are made out of tile and look like one gigantic mosaic, the pews are wooden and have red velvet seats, old suits of armor line one of the walls, and every wall is adorned with intricate stained-glass windows. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's what St. Patrick's looks like from the outside:

A rare moment of sun and blue skies!

St. Patrick's reminds me so much of Gasson Hall (one of the classroom buildings at BC).

This statue in St. Stephen's Green commemorates the potato famine. 

After mass, we met up with a group of UCD students to go on a 2-hour walking tour of Dublin. Even though it started pouring at the beginning of the tour, this was by far my favourite (I need to practice spelling the European way since I'll have to do this when I write essays!) activity I've done since I arrived here. I learned so much about the history of Ireland as well as contemporary Irish culture, and since the tour guide was another UCD student who is a professional Dublin tour guide, the tour was catered to our age group and was enjoyable despite the rain. The tour started at St. Stephen's Green where the tour guide gave a brief history of Ireland. He told us that Ireland's history can be summed up in two words: rebellion and famine.



The next stop on the tour was the National Library of Ireland, the Museum of Ireland, and the Parliament house, which are all right next to each other.

The back of the Irish Parliament building

The front of the Irish Parliament building - what the White House is based off of! (I took this picture last night after the castle, so that's why it's darker than the others)

The National Library of Ireland is considered a library of record, which means it contains a copy of every book ever published in the UK and Ireland during the past 4,000 years.

After this we went to Trinity College, where we learned about the history of the school and a few strange rules that are in place. My favourite: anyone who wears his family colors and rides a white horse into an exam is allowed to demand a meal and a pint of Guinness from the proctor. Someone actually tried this in 1997, and he was given a steak and a pint to eat and drink during his test. We also got to see the outside of the Trinity College Library, which is the largest one-room library in the world, and, like the National Library of Ireland, it's a library of record. The Trinity College Library is also home to the Book of Kells, which is basically an old and fancy copy of the Gospels.

The exam room where a gentleman can take a test while eating steak and drinking beer

The dorm that Oscar Wilde lived in when he went to Trinity

Next, we headed into Temple Bar, which is the current center of culture and night life in Dublin. Not just one bar but an entire district, Temple Bar's narrow, cobbled streets are lined with pubs, theatres, art galleries, and street musicians. 

The Wall of Fame in Temple Bar pays tribute to some of the greatest musicians in Ireland, including U2 and Van Morrison. 

The tour concluded with a short walk past Christ Church Cathedral, the alley where Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) was born, and City Hall, where we learned about how the Irish gained their independence from Britain. After about 700 years of rebellion and war, things finally started coming together in 1919 with the adoption of the Irish flag. Each of the flag's three colors has a special significance: green represents Ireland, orange represents England, and the white in the middle represents peace between the two. Three years later in 1922, Ireland officially gained its independence from England when the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed.

Learning about all different aspects of Dublin today, from the strange rules at Trinity College to the long fight for independence from England, made me appreciate so much more the opportunity I have to come here to UCD. I could have studied English literature almost anywhere, but I couldn't have gotten to see Oscar Wilde's dorm, Jonathan Swift's birthplace, or the largest one-room library in the world if I had gone somewhere else.   

Favorite Day of the Year

All of us at the Ha'penny Bridge! 

Gratton Bridge

After being at UCD for nearly a week, my friends and I were itching to go into Dublin and do something touristy; we had been so busy with orientation and getting settled in that we hadn't gotten the chance to explore the city much at all. On Saturday evening walked across the Ha'penny and Gratton Bridges, which both cross the River Liffey and are beautiful at night when they're all lit up. The Ha'penny Bridge is a cast-iron bridge that was built in 1816 and is solely for pedestrian use. The Grattan Bridge was originally built in the 1750s, but was reopened and given its current name in 1874. When we were walking around here I kept thinking about how California wasn't even discovered when  these bridges were built. I always used to think European history was boring, but now that I'm here I'm starting to change my mind.

Ha'penny Bridge

One of the arches on the Ha'penny Bridge - couples put locks here and throw the key into the River Liffey (cute, right?)

Saturday was also my 21st birthday, so after walking around the city for a while we went to the Brazen Head for dinner and cider. The Brazen Head is Ireland's oldest pub and was built in 1198.

I titled this post "Favorite Day of the Year" not because of my birthday, but because today is the day of the year that I look forward to more than my birthday, Christmas, or any other special occasion; today is The First Day of School! Aside from international students who were here for orientation, campus was pretty empty last week. Now, there are 25,000 students here (including my other roommate, an Irish girl in her first year). I'm taking  six classes this semester, four of which are lectures and two of which are seminars. Each lecture comes with a tutorial, which seems like the equivalent of a small group discussion. The classes I'm taking are: Psychology of Language, Perspectives in Film, Twentieth Century Drama, Brain and Behavior, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and the East, and a class on Irish culture that's only for BC students. Since most of the classes here are so big, there isn't really homework or quizzes or anything like we have at BC; most of my classes have one 1500 word essay and an exam at the end. We also have all of our textbooks online or on reserve at the library, so I don't have to deal with buying books or taking them around everywhere. So far I've only been to the Psychology of Language lecture, and it seems like an interesting but not too difficult course. It was kind of nice to just sit in a lecture hall and not have to worry about getting called on by the professor like I do in all of my classes at BC. As fun as it was not having to worry about school last week, I'm excited to get into the routine of classes, because, as most of you know, going to school is my idea of fun. 

Bonjour, new roommate!

It's Friday afternoon, and with every passing day I learn more and more about navigating Dublin, living in Ireland, and taking classes at UCD. While this makes me more comfortable in most respects, it also makes me feel more clueless and makes me see that there's still so much that I don't know about living in Europe. While I'm slowly getting used to walking up the left side of the staircase and paying for things in euros, I still can't get over the way people here deal with time. All of the orientation meetings have started at least ten minutes late, and whenever an Irish person says something is "a five minute walk away," it takes at least 15 to 20 minutes to get there. I like to be on time or early for everything, so this is definitely a big change for me. People here seem so much more laid back, and it probably wouldn't be a bad thing if some of this rubbed off on me and helped me relax a little more.

As of Wednesday, I have one roommate (there's still no sign of the third yet). He's from France (yes, my roommate is a guy, but all of the housing here is co-ed so I guess this is normal) and it's been really interesting to live with someone from another country. Yesterday one of his friends from France and another friend from Ireland came over for lunch, and we talked a lot about education systems in our respective countries and stereotypes we have of each other's. A significant portion of the UCD student body commutes to school, and they said that most Europeans rarely go somewhere too far from home. They kept asking me questions about why I would go to school in Boston when I live in California, especially when they found out how expensive college in America is. While we were talking, I was struck by how much more they seem to know about the world than I do. Even though I had to explain the education system in America to them, they knew all about American politics, geography, football teams, and music. Given that the only European events I pay attention to are the ones that concern Prince William and Kate Middleton, I felt very inadequate during this conversation. I know I've received a great education and had phenomenal opportunities to learn, but I couldn't help being a little bit jealous that they all speak five languages and have a much broader understanding of the world than I do. 

One of the things I was most excited about for this semester was the chance to meet people from all over the world and the opportunity to broaden my perspectives on different issues. Although living with a French guy will definitely take some getting used to, I hope it will allow me to learn more about different cultures and will introduce me to new things that I never knew about or considered before. Rest assured, Mom and Dad, this living situation seems like it's going to work out!

Dublin Days 1 and 2

After two five-and-a-half hour plane rides, a 50 minute bus ride, and a 20 minute walk, I finally made it to UCD on Monday morning. I've been really busy since I got here, and I can't believe I've only been here for two full days! I haven't gotten the chance to explore Dublin much, but I really like what I've seen so far, I've met some great people, and I can tell I'm really going to enjoy this semester.

When I arrived on Monday morning, I checked into my apartment. Housing here is very different from housing at BC. There are several living areas, and each one is made up of different "houses." In each house, there are apartments, and in each apartment there are rooms for up to 6 people. My living area is called Belgrove, and when I told the RA who checked me in that that's where I'm living, he laughed. Belgrove isn't known for being the nicest living area, and I was a little nervous when I arrived in my apartment and discovered that the shower doesn't turn on and that there were mouse droppings on the kitchen floor. On the bright side, I have a single room and two other roommates (whom I have yet to meet), and we have a kitchen and bathroom that we all share. The kitchen has pots, pans, and dishes, which I'm excited about because so far, I have not been impressed with the food here.

Grafton Street! 

After I checked into my apartment and unpacked, some UCD students took a group of international students to Grafton Street to get things like bedding, towels, adapters for electronics, and other things that we couldn't bring with us from home. Grafton Street is kind of like the Newbury Street equivalent of Dublin, only much cooler. It's about as wide as a one-way street, but cars don't drive on it; the ground is made of bricks and everyone walks along the sidewalks and in the middle of the road. All of the buildings are very stereotypically Irish-looking, there are street vendors selling flowers, and musicians playing Irish instruments line the sidewalks. It really hit me that I'm in Dublin when I walked along Grafton street for the first time. I would overhear people around me speaking and think to myself, "how cool; they have Irish accents!" But then I realized that I'm the one with the accent because I'm finally in Ireland!

Irish accents are much more difficult to understand than I thought they would be. We had to stop a few times to ask someone for directions to the bus stop, and I literally had no idea what anyone said. This is giving me a new appreciation for people who come to America from other countries; if I'm having so much trouble understanding people who speak the same language as I do, I can't imagine being in a place where the language is completely different. Besides the accents, using the euro is the other biggest difference about living in Ireland. There are 1 and 2 euro coins, but not 1 and 2 euro bills. Euros are different shades of blue and pink, and since they can't get me anything in America, I've always viewed euros as a novelty. I almost accidentally spit my gum into a 5 euro yesterday because I thought it was a receipt.

I've spent most of my time the past two days with other people from BC and some girls from Mount Holyoke we met at the airport. It's really nice having people here who are in the same position as I am and are learning their way around here too. The first night we all went to a pub for dinner (and no, I did not have any Guinness - I thought about it but it looked like a frothy version of watered-down chocolate milk, so I decided against it). Last night some of them came to my apartment and we cooked dinner together. I can tell I'm going to become good friends with a lot of these people, and I can't wait to meet some Irish students!

We haven't had any formal introductions to UCD or anything yet, so all of us have been working together to find places to do things like open bank accounts and get bus passes. Yesterday we signed up for the International Student Society and the Erasmus Student Network, which are clubs for international students that sponsor things like walking tours of Dublin, pub crawls, and weekend trips to places around Ireland. All of the Irish students in the international student office were really friendly and helpful (like pretty much all of the other Irish people I've met). Orientation begins later this afternoon, and I'm excited that things are hopefully going to be more organized. It's been fun trying to figure things out on my own, but hopefully this will answer some more of my questions and make things a little bit easier.

Let the Adventure Begin!

Dia Dhuit (which is Gaelic for hello and is pronounced jee-ah ghwit)! I'm a junior at Boston College studying abroad at University College Dublin for the semester. If anyone is interested in learning more about UCD, here's a link to their website:

http://www.ucd.ie/

Right now, I'm at the San Francisco airport. In about an hour I'll be on a plane to Boston, and from there I'm flying to Dublin. If all goes as planned, I should be in Dublin tomorrow morning at 5:30 am Dublin time. When I tell people I'm spending a semester in Ireland, the first thing they usually say is, "Do you like Guinness?" I've never had Guinness, and that had nothing to do with my decision to go to Ireland. I'm an English major, and I wanted to study in the land of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and C.S. Lewis. This is my first time leaving America, and I'll be writing about my experiences here in "Dublin Diaries."